Thanks to Tom Philpott at Grist for the news today that Hillary Clinton has hired Joy Philippi, the former president of a the National Pork Producers Council, the main trade group representing CAFO operators, as co-chair of Rural Americans for Hillary.

Nice to know that Hillary shares the same “family values” as Paula Deen. Maybe she has plans for Paula too? Can’t you just picture both of them on the campaign trail, munching away on pork chops on a stick as they campaign through rural America?

Oops! Sorry! That’s Nancy Pelosi’s gig.

Boy it’s a good thing I don’t have a Hillary bumper sticker on my car, cause I’d be out in the driveway, scrubbing it off, instead writing this little piece of brilliance…

Now I’m sure Rural Americans every where are rejoicing (Joy to the World!) that someone who has littered their states and counties with factory farms is now representing them in the Clinton campaign.

I can’t wait to see Ms. Philippi visiting these communities and trading plastic pig noses for votes. Oink oink!

Do you remember our post from a while back where we looked at John Ikerd’s (Professor Emeritus of Agricultural Economics, University of Missouri, Columbia College of Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources) analysis of CAFO’s on rural economies? Here’s a refresher:

One thing on which proponents and opponents agree is that CAFOs completely disrupt the community life of rural people. Some have labeled this the most divisive rural issue since the Civil War. In many communities, multigenerational family farmers are leading the opposition, often pitting neighbor against neighbors who have been their friends for years. In one community, I was once told that everyone in a specific county had been identified as being either for or against CAFOs. No conversation was said to take place on the county courthouse square that did not include a discussion of CAFOs. Communities that were once effective in working together on community and economic development efforts have been paralyzed by internal dissention. It’s becomes difficult, if not impossible, to gain public support for schools, health care, roads, and other public services because anything proposed by those on one side of the CAFO issue is opposed by those on the other. The people of every “CAFO community” I have visited have validated this fact: CAFOs destroy the social fabric of rural communities.

More here >>>

Well, I just re-read that post, and it sounds to me like someone who “has been a tireless champion of industrial-meat interests since she first began serving as NPPC president in 2005″(Philpott), isn’t a person who has the best interests of rural economies in mind.

Tsk tsk Hillary. We expect to see you on Oprah’s couch soon, confessing your - oh wait - that won’t work will it?

Clunk.